BOL­STER YOUR SAV­INGS

Even if you fig­ure out your next ca­reer path be­fore you quit, you may still ex­pe­ri­ence an em­ploy­ment gap. If you’re in such a high-pres­sure job that you don’t have brain space or time to fig­ure out what you want to do next, then you’ll have to live on your sav­ings. Ei­ther way, be­gin to see how you can cut back on your ex­penses, or make ex­tra money.

“Since the aver­age job search takes about four to six months, you should craft a plan of ac­tion, which en­tails sav­ing and liv­ing on that for at least six months,” says Dr Orbe-Austin. Note that he says “at least six months”. If you think you’ll need time to fig­ure out your next ca­reer move, amass more sav­ings, or down­size your life­style.

Hav­ing enough sav­ings will help en­sure that you don’t chicken out. “If we’re wor­ried about not hav­ing enough money, it will be hard to do this tran­si­tion,” says Heather Hans, psy­chother­a­pist and au­thor of The Heart of Self Love: How to Ra­di­ate with Con­fi­dence.